


Back to Pretending for a Little Longer

by Cookies_and_Chaos



Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:27:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28281666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookies_and_Chaos/pseuds/Cookies_and_Chaos
Summary: Working out the best way to help Daisy isn't always the easiest thing to do. Set at end of 'Arsenic for Tea'. Written for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge 2020, Day 6, "Six Full Backpacks".
Kudos: 8
Collections: 12 Days of Christmas Challenge 2020





	Back to Pretending for a Little Longer

Daisy is back to pretending again and I don't know how to help.

Now that I know that's what she's doing, it's easy to see why I didn't realise earlier, she's awfully good at hiding what she's really feeling. Even from me. So now that we've found Mr Curtis' murderer and put the case to bed, I'm sat on the end of one of the beds in the nursery, my stomach aching with a miserable sadness that I don't really understand and Daisy is back to behaving like she always does.

I must admit, at first I wasn't sure if she was pretending that everything was fixed or whether she really did think that everything was resolved.

Then I saw the flicker of her gaze moving from person to person, filing away small details that I didn't see, and the glimmer of sadness came back to her face for just long enough for me to see. That was when I knew that she doesn't think everything is really resolved. For even if Daisy doesn't always understand other people and how they feel or react, she does see their reactions. Even those they try to hide. So even though Lord and Lady Hastings are pretending that things are on their way back to normal, I know Daisy can see the terse edge to Lady Hasting's voice and the sad softening in Lord Hasting's eyes. I know Daisy can still feel the way she felt, like a punch in the stomach, when she saw her mother kissing Mr Curtis. And even though Bertie is back to being angry and stomping around his room, I know that Daisy can see the heartbreak he's holding just beneath the surface, and even if she didn't see that she would hear that his ukelele lays unplayed, abandoned in the corner of his room.

Everything that Daisy could once rely upon to keep still and in place is shifting, cracking, crumbling. What will be left once all the dust settles, I couldn't even begin to guess. For once, neither could Daisy so I understood why she was back to pretending. 

"Do cheer up Hazel, soon we shall be back at Deepdean and all of this will be..." Daisy falters for just a moment. "A horrid memory. We shall forget about it like we did Miss Bell and move onto the next case."

I try to smile back reassuringly and join her in her game of pretend but I can feel how feeble the smile is. Daisy pretends she doesn't see that either.

"You haven't packed yet and we're to leave tomorrow," I say eventually, once the silence has gone on for quite long enough. "Here, let me help."

At least that, as Daisy would say, is a practical way to help.


End file.
